A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1)

“That’s really risky,” Sera finally said. “What if it’s wrong?”


“Duh!” Dak threw up his hands in frustration. “What if any word we come up with is wrong? Got any better ideas? It seems obvious to me.”

“I think he’s right,” Riq said — which irritated Dak slightly, because it made it harder to hate the guy. “If we only have one chance, it would have to be something that stands out once you see it. And that does. Plain and simple.”

Sera slowly nodded while biting her lower lip. “I guess I’m just scared to death to actually try anything. We only have one shot.”

Dak shrugged. “That’s why you should type it in. Go for it.”

“Why not you?”

“Because I’m the history expert. They need me. Badly.”

“I think you mean history nerd,” Riq muttered under his breath.

“Well, technically you’re right,” Dak said. “As any real language expert should know, the origin of the word dates back to the mid twentieth cent —”

“Maybe later,” Sera interrupted. “As engaging as that sounds, let’s focus on this right now.”

“Okay,” Dak said. “Hand it over, I’ll do it.” He had a burst of confidence that he was right about what to input. Taking the device from Sera, he took a seat and turned it on. The same two sentences popped up on the screen. He drew in a breath, tapped the box, typed out “Password” on the virtual keyboard, then clicked the OK button.

The screen instantly flashed white, and for about half a second Dak thought it was the beginning of a massive explosion that would incinerate him. But then words started to appear.

Break #1

Sally forth, astute and wise

Search the page, find the prize

Centuries pass, mind and heart

Devoted to the Memory’s Art


Dak smiled. “What did I tell you? I solved it with my eyes closed.”

But his victory was short-lived. Below the poem was the most confusing image Dak had ever seen, a hodgepodge of circles and broken lines and shapes. There were Greek letters on one side of the image, and the word “lagoon” on the other.



“What the heck is that?” he asked.

“Spain,” Riq whispered. “We need to go to Spain.”





“HUH?” SERA asked. “What hat did you pull that out of?”

Dak had just been about to ask the same thing. Nothing in the weird picture seemed to suggest Spain. Or anything else for that matter.

Riq was obviously trying to hide a satisfied smile — but not too hard. It sneaked its way across his face. “They gave us something easy to start with. I could’ve done this one after just a couple of lessons.”

“Lessons in what?” Dak asked.

“I told you before — The Art of Memory.”

Sera was nodding. “They mentioned that to us, but didn’t say much about it.”

“It’s an image-based memory trick.” Riq pointed to the screen. “It’s been scrambled up beyond recognition, but if you imagine rotating the pieces around, you can see it’s the Spanish coat of arms.”

Dak leaned in for a closer look. If he squinted, he could almost make it out. “Spain, huh?”

“Not just Spain,” Riq said. “But a city and date, too. The Greek letters actually stand in for numbers — a common practice. And lagoon in Latin is palus. We need to go to Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492.”

Dak recognized the time and place. There was only one possible explanation for why they’d need to go there.

“Hey, you in there?”

Dak blinked — Sera was snapping her fingers under his nose. “Sorry, just accessing the genius shelf in my brain. I know what we need to do.”

Sera’s eyebrows rose, and even Riq looked intrigued.

“There’s an obvious candidate for a Break, something that ends up affecting the entire world for centuries, all the way up to now. Or then. Or when it used to be our now. You get me?”

“Yeah, we get you.” She rolled her eyes a bit. “So what is it?”

“That’s where the ships leave that’ll eventually discover the Americas. The Ni?a, the Pinta, and the Santa María. The voyage of the Amancio brothers!”

“Good. Let’s get there, then we can see what else the SQuare has for us,” Sera said.

“Works for me,” Riq said.

Dak felt like leaping in the air and kicking his feet together — he was so excited. But he figured he better act like the mature save-the-world man he’d become, so he simply nodded and said, “Let’s get her done.”